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Tilt and Shift - part 3 of 1 2 3 4 5 6

by Paul Gallagher Published 01/08/2009

The Nikon D3X is the flagship Nikon DSLR with a 24.5 megapixel FX CMOS sensor and boasts an ISO range of 100 to 1600. The 24mm PC-E lens has an angle of view of 84°, rising to 101° when fully shifted. The shift is available at ±11.5mm and the tilt ranges ±8.5°. This lens contains 13 elements in 10 groups. It has three ED elements, three aspheric and one with the new Nano Crystal Coat. All I had to do now was get out there and see if all this technology was up to much, and more importantly, could this lens perform the movements and deliver the results that my Schneider lenses could when fitted to my Ebony.

When I arrived on the Isle of Lewis and Harris I ventured out onto the wonderful beaches and deployed the Nikon with the 24mm PC-E as I would have done if using my large format camera. I first noticed the ease at which I could use this lens and how quickly I could obtain focus using its tilt function. There was no doubting the build quality of this lens and it 'felt' well-made and all adjustments were smooth. There was one thing at this stage that I did miss in comparison to my large format camera, and that was the ability to use a focusing loupe as it enables you to closely monitor your focusing on small, individual parts of the ground glass and perfect the focusing process.

The lens is fitted with a locking knob on one side and a 'dial-in' adjustment knob on the other. Both of these functions are easily accessible to the hands when looking through the viewfinder of the camera and avoid the need to take your eyes from the focusing operation. The general focusing operation I followed with this lens is as follows:

1 Compose. Set lens to zero degrees tilt and frame the photograph.

2 Identify. Identify critical nearest and furthest subjects along the subject plane.

3 Focus. Focus at a distance that maximizes near and far subject sharpness in the viewfinder (if far subject is at infinity, this distance will be at or near the hyperfocal distance). Once an approximate distance is identified, twist the focus ring on the lens back and forth slightly to get a better estimate of this distance.

4 Tilt. Very slowly apply lens tilt towards the subject plane (usually tilting downwards) until near and far subject sharpness is maximized in viewfinder. Once an approximate tilt angle is identified, slightly rotate the tilt knob back and forth to get a better estimate of this angle.

5 Refine. Repeat steps (3) and (4) with smaller changes than before to identify whether this improves both near and far subject sharpness; if no further improvement then the focusing procedure is complete. 6 Stop Down. After you have completed the task described above stop the lens down to f11, which I found was more than enough after which you will suffer from diffraction and begin to loose the sharpness you have worked so hard for.

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